My boss, and reigning champion for receipt of the prestigious Dark Lord of Public Media mantle award, Nick Denton, just called me an "unabashed American apologist." I don't even pretend to know what that means, but if it has to do with believing that American automakers still have it in them to bring "teh awesome" to market, then hell yeah I am.

Wes had some minor concerns in his review of the new Chevy Camaro that he felt kept it from being a world-beater, feeling Chevy was trying to push the new Camaro up against the sports car world. Whether interior plastics or minor numbness of steering, I'm not going to discount those deficiencies — they're all valid. But you know what? I don't care.

Forget for a moment this car's performance (a mid-four-second 0-to-60 time) and fuel economy (16/24 for the V8-engined SS, 17/29 for the V6) — because this muscle car's got some serious style. I'd seen looks in cars before. Whether it's a Ferrari F430 or a Bentley GTC Speed, you can get 'em. What I was astonished by was how easily the Camaro gets them.

One block into my drive in lower Manhattan saw guys grabbing camera phones to take photos. Never saw that with one o' them fancy-pants'ed Euro cars. Nope, this big ol' 'merican muscle car was something different. It carries itself differently — with kind of a swagger.

So I'm willing to ignore those deficiencies Wes found. Mostly, because I'm not trying to rate this car as a sports car. Instead, I'm rating it for what it is — a big hairy 'merican muscle car. From the moment you sit inside and fire up the big 426 HP V8 engine, you're transported to a world where all you want to do is fire off down the road, stoplight-to-breathtakingly-exhilarating-stoplight. In that world, you couldn't care less about plastics on the dash. No, all you care about is goin' fast and knowing you're able to beat the guy next to you. The new Camaro SS? Yeah, it'll do that — in spades, and better than the competition at the price point. And frankly, that's all I want.